


Prologue

by nyanbacon



Series: The Room Five [1]
Category: The Room (Video Game)
Genre: Based on theories, Dreams, Foreshadowing, Insanity, Mental Institute/Asylum, Other, Visions, mentions of gore, mentions of monitored medication, mentions of self harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 05:23:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18004631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyanbacon/pseuds/nyanbacon
Summary: I was alone in the cell at first, and it didn’t feel that different than the padded room had. The change was something the Null had gotten me accustomed to- a new room, a new puzzle to crack, only to lead to more questions instead of more answers.This time, though, there would be no more questions.This time, I'd finally get my answers.--Contains spoilers for all four endings of The Room Three





	Prologue

I have dreams. I haven’t been able to get rid of the dreams. I wake up with a new rune etched into my skin every time I have one of them. The doctors say I’m doing it with my own nails, and I know they must be right, but part of me is convinced it’s the Null, marking me. Claiming me as its own. 

The thought is terrifying, so I try to not dwell on it.

The dreams are vivid. I can’t discern between what’s reality and what isn’t. I wake up more exhausted than I was when I fell asleep, like I switch bodies. Transcend time and space to become the person in my dreams.

Thanks to my exposure to the Null, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

I see Grey Holm again. Or, not really Grey Holm. I remember flashes, small bits and pieces of the puzzles I had to solve, and puzzles I don’t remember solving. But usually, I’m in the tower. A small cold mirror is pressed in the palm of my hand and I can feel the artifact in my pocket.

Or, artifacts.

There were two of them. How could I have not known.

Usually, the one I see the most is the one I’m familiar with. The boat. The tentacles. The way Grey Holm was crushed from the inside by whatever protects the Null- or so I can assume. Sometimes, though, the sky is clear. I’m left with nothing— no proof on any map or in anyone’s mind that Grey Holm ever existed. And I move on. I live without the knowledge I’ve worked so hard to obtain.

For a fleeting moment, I’m happy. It feels nice.

But it never lasts.

I hold onto those dreams, sometimes, because I’ve forgotten how to feel that. Happy.

Inside these white and gray walls with the doctors that know nothing of the danger that is coming, happiness is but a fleeting illusion of better days.

Other times, I end up in a train. I feel like my business is unfinished, because I know it is. I know this isn’t the end. But this version of me doesn’t. This version of me is content with the answer. This version of me is content with this labyrinth; the twisting, spiraling, endless paths of Grey Holm trapped in the hands of the Craftsman, as he waits for the soul that would allow him through the portal.

And sometimes, I’m on a planet I only recognize because of the structures in the telescope. The dust clogs my throat and I feel nothing but loneliness and emptiness. I don’t know where I am.

I wake up before I can get answers, hands bloody and someone pinning me down to bandage the new rune on my skin, but I know. I know the truth.

One of these people, one of these versions of me….

They became one with the Null.

The doctors try and medicate me, to stop the dreams, to stop the self harm, but the medication doesn’t work. These dreams, they work outside of how any archaic science. They couldn’t possibly understand. I try to explain it, but all they do is tell me I’m crazy and change the medicine again. 

There’s a point- I can’t point it out, looking back on it- where I stop fighting. I know I’m the only one that knows the truth. They’re just too blind, too  _ stupid _ to see what’s lying right in front of them, and it will be their downfall.

I’m the only one who will make it out. Me, the one who understands the Null; me, who’s spent my whole life running from it; me, who released it into this world will be the only one to survive.

So I lay down and take the medicine, and let them bandage the runes they don’t know the source of, and go through the motions like any other patient. I don’t get better. I know I never will. Part of me knows it’s getting worse, but it’s my normal, so I don’t notice it. I only notice it when they isolate me from the rest of the patients. The quiet aloneness doesn’t trouble me, though. I’m quite accustomed to it by now. 

Then, one day, there’s a change. Someone comes to the door much too soon for a meal (I’d stopped keeping track of what day and night was, because I knew if I fell asleep I’d see myself- the version of myself that was able to be happy, and another rune would appear on my skin, and I couldn’t, I  _ can’t  _ take it- but I still knew approximately when meals were). The doctor opened the door and ordered me out of the padded room I was kept in. I was silent as I rose to my feet. I’d learned they didn’t like me speaking, because the truth agitated them, so I kept my mouth shut.

I was alone in the cell at first, and it didn’t feel that different than the padded room had. The change was something the Null had gotten me accustomed to- a new room, a new puzzle to crack, only to lead to more questions instead of more answers.

_ This time, though, there would be no more questions. _

A man I didn’t recognize walked into the room, but he wore a suit similar to the one I’d found A.S. in. Crisp, blue, well kept. He carried a file with him. A file I knew had the answers he was searching for. 

_ This time, I’d finally get my answers. _

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this to explain the main character's ailments after emerging from Grey Holm in the Release ending. The prequel to "The Room Five".


End file.
